Alert officer finds that a man who doesn't exist in the system has been paid Rs 14 lakh in salary since January 2012; is this just a one-off incident or is there another big BMC scam?
BMC stopped Yadav's salary in November 2015, when his fraud was discovered. File pic
Over two years after his grave crime was first discovered, an FIR has finally been registered against Ramdas Yadav, who had secured a job at a Borivli cemetery managed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on fake documents. Officials caught his fraud only after he'd been on their payroll for nearly three years. Yadav has been on the run ever since he was fired from his job.
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A BMC official named Cecilia Gomes discovered the fraudulent methods of this employee in 2015, when she was posted at the R-central ward in Borivli West as an administrative officer. The discovery, however, was made after Yadav had already been on BMC's payroll for over three years. After getting a whiff about Yadav's mis-recruitment, BMC officials initiated an internal inquiry; on getting proof of cheating, they sent a written complaint to the Mumbai police.
Vacant posts
According to the complaint given by Gomes, who is currently posted at Sion hospital, in November 2015, they were discussing vacant posts in the cemetery at Borivli, when they got to know they needed staff for three positions. But during the scrutiny, the officials learnt that as per the salary data, there were just two vacancies as Yadav was employed on the third since 2012.
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The officials began their inquiry but failed to find out more details on Yadav, who was working in their ward. An officer said, “Going through the available information about Yadav, they [BMC officials] came to know that on January 9, 2012, the R-central ward had received a new employee's name with an order copy issued by F-south ward. The order copy stated, 'Yadav is posted for B ward, but he will get his monthly salary from R-central ward'.”
Not working for us
Following this, officials from R-central ward contacted B ward, from where they learnt that no personnel named Yadav was working for them. Officials also checked a few other wards, but they did not find him working anywhere. Later, Gomes asked people from her own office to show his personal data, but they could not find it. After more inquiries, officers found out that Yadav had been appointed on the basis of a fake official order. Then, in November 2015, they stopped his salary. On November 23, 2015, BMC officials issued an order to lodge a complaint with the Borivli police for investigating the matter. They gave a written complaint on December 2, 2015.
Lakhs in pay
How much did BMC pay Yadav before firing him? Police sources said, “As per their official salary records, they had transferred approximately Rs 13,73,428 as salary in Yadav's account from January 2012 to October 2015.” Yadav has been absconding since. Why has it taken that long to register an FIR in this case? An officer from Borivli police station explained, “We took Gomes' statement, who had given the complaint. But we couldn't register the FIR as the officer had been transferred and couldn't sign on it. When the new officer came in, he saw the pending matter and approached us, and we said we needed Gomes to sign on the FIR. Gomes then finally agreed to come in and do the needful, after which the FIR was filed.” When mid-day contacted Gomes, she said she signed on the FIR on behalf of Assistant Municipal Commissioner Ramakant Biradar.
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